Filmmaker Maïwenn may be best known stateside for playing Diva Plavalaguna in “The Fifth Element,” but her notable French filmmaking career may soon take off in the U.S. thanks to “Mon Roi.”
French for “My King,” “Mon Roi” stars Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Bercot as a couple who fall on hard times. Tony (Bercot) is admitted to a rehabilitation center after a serious ski accident. As the official synopsis continues, “Dependent on the medical staff and pain relievers, she takes time to look back on a turbulent relationship that she experienced with Georgio. Why did they love each other? Who is this man that she loved so deeply? How did she allow herself to submit to this suffocating and destructive passion? For Tony, a difficult process of healing is in front of her, physical work which may finally set her free.”
Maïwenn won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001 for directing the police procedural “Polisse” before receiving 13 César Award nominations the following year. “Mon roi” earned Emmanuelle Bercot the festival’s Best Actress prize last year, an award she shared with Rooney Mara for “Carol.”
“Mon Roi” opens in the U.S. on July 15.